Open Discussion: Where Would Your Business Be Without a Blog?

http://blogforprofit.com Grant Griffiths

My blog Blog for Profit and the other social media tools were and continue to be a huge way we communicate with our audience when it comes to Headway. In fact, social media, my blog and those who helped us, made the launch of Headway a complete success.

Even though my business is located online, using the same methods would and do work for the brick and mortar businesses using a blog and social media.

So where would my business be without a blog, it would not exist. Period!

http://www.rebeccalaffarsmith.com/ Rebecca Laffar-Smith

I have a guest post scheduled for March with menwithpens.ca that talks about why it is better for some businesses NOT to have a blog. I think there are a lot of businesses that can have the benefits of blogging without the pitfalls of maintaining their own blog.

There are definitely benefits of blogging, but for some business owners the return on investment just isn't there. While you can get started blogging for free, a quality, professional blog costs a fair penny out of pocket to get online before you've ever written a word. And then it costs you in time and/or money to fill that blog with content. It takes time for that blog to build a readership and the promotional efforts to generate that readership is another investment that has yet to return you a dime.

If bloggers evaluated exactly how much expense their blog has cost them, down to paying their own wages not just their hosting company and Web designer, you're expecting a great deal of return to cover your investment.

In some industries a blog is a stamp of professionalism, in others it's just another drain on the resources. When it comes down to it, many businesses can have blog-like results for a lot less money and without a blog of their own.

http://www.nextlevelblogger.com/about Christian Russell

I hope to read your article! I've never understood the trouble in measuring ROI. Do you measure the ROI of going to an industry dinner or other networking event? Do you say “Hmm, I'd like to go meet up with these other professionals in my industry and share ideas, but how will I explain this to my shareholders?” ROI? It costs $10 a month and requires less time than what most corporate types spend in two-hour-long meetings than could be easily replaced with a single email.

I look forward to your post; I hope it will shed some light on this topic!
- http://www.rebeccalaffarsmith.com/ Rebecca Laffar-Smith
  
  In a way, you DO measure ROI when going to an industry dinner or other networking event. You don't, for example, take your time to go to the industry dinner held for patchwork quilters if you're a brick layer. Because the ROI would be dismal. How would rubbing shoulders with a bunch of old women help your brick laying business? Sure, one or two might need to get some bricks laid at some point but they're just as likely to grab their yellow pages and find you there. Instead, you only go to the events where your time is going to produce value for you. It might be in knowledge, or experience, it might be in connections or just to be seen as an industry expert. But you get some sort of reward for investing your time in going to that event.
  
  When it comes to blogging a lot of people only consider their out of pocket costs. If it costs you $10/year for your domain name it sounds like a great investment. But if you spend 30 minutes a day writing blog posts and your normal hourly rate is $40 it's costing you $20/day to write content for your blog. Five days a week = $100, four weeks a month = $400, 12 months = $4800/year! Unless you're getting $400 worth of affiliate sales, or conversions to client work per month you might have better spent those 30 minutes on paid work.
  
  There are other reasons to blog, obviously. $400/month in the time it takes to write a ranty personal blog is the cheapest therapist I know. $400/month for the supplies to relish a favorite hobby isn't considered extreme either (my mother spends at least that on material for her patchwork quilting and my sister on supplies for her garden). If you truly LOVE to blog, your investment doesn't necessarily need to reward you in monetary ways to be worthy. But if you're a business, you definitely want to be considering what maintaining a blog is really costing your business.
  - http://www.nextlevelblogger.com/about Christian Russell
    
    Rebecca, great points…I always love it when someone competently challenges my position I would argue that judging your time as being worth only your current hourly rate is a losing proposition, but I do understand your stance on that, and I acknowledge that many people do take the short view in that regard.
    
    The ability to test ideas, prove demand for a product and even build excitement for a new release essentially for free…after you have a community built up would easily clock in as being worth an immense amount of money. A long view is really more appropriate for a long term endeavor. If a blog were short term, then it would be appropriate to think in terms of short term return (time invested vs immediate return via aff commissions, etc), but since blogging is not a short term endeavor, I'd argue a short term assessment is really not helpful. No doubt you've thought this through so I'd love your thoughts!
    - Gillian
      
      “essentially for free”… excuse me, did you zone out during Rebecca's analysis of the real cost?
      
      “after you have a community built up” — how many bloggers actually succeed in building an audience?
      
      Your idea of long term seems to be full of wishful thinking – its got a lot of 'ifs' in there.
      
      And your suggestion that business people should ignore ROI when it comes to blogging is downright silly.
      
      As a business person who has a couple of personal blogs, I am happy not to add a blog to my consulting business. Instead, I reap the cross-over benefits of applying knowledge and skills I learn writing and reading blogs to business situations.
    - http://www.nextlevelblogger.com/about Christian Russell
      
      Hey Gillian – I'm glad to hear your approach is working for you. That rocks! My angle is not wishful thinking…it's simply based on what I've experienced in my own business. I don't ignore ROI either; not sure where you got that. I didn't zone out on Rebecca's analysis; I disagree with it. Thanks for the feedback
remarkablogger

Rebecca, I'm sure that will be a really interesting post. I look forward to it. Thanks for being willing to be a dissenting voice about the supposed necessity of blogs in general.

But what about you? What about your blog? That's really what I'm asking.
- http://www.rebeccalaffarsmith.com/ Rebecca Laffar-Smith
  
  When I first started as a freelance writer there were benefits of blogging, such as developing discipline to write regularly and developing the writing craft with a great deal of unpaid practice. But what I also found was that I’d find excuses to blog instead of work, or I’d be in a working frenzy and “forget” to blog. The blog never really amounted to much because my focus was split with the “real” work and the hobby of blogging when the mood struck. So it never brought in an income in a true sense, but, for establishing myself in the industry in early days it was at least an opportunity to let potential clients see my writing style. (An opportunity I now offer other writers without the stress and pressure of feeling they have to keep their blog up to date or the struggle to build their own traffic.)
  
  Now I have more work than any one human can fit into their schedule (and still have some semblance of a real life), and writing blog posts is just another of those time sinks that stack on pressure I don’t need (and don’t give back enough money to make worth my time). When I realized I wouldn’t be able to write regularly, and that trying to was making me miserable, I changed my focus. Now I do very little writing at all, most of my work is in Web design and technology tutoring. I didn’t have a blog for that (although I maintained the writing blog because I opened it up as a community project and personally contribute very rarely). I haven’t needed a blog to keep the work coming in, word of mouth (locally, online, and social media) keeps me busy.
  
  Of course, having said that, about two weeks ago, I created a new blog (webtechndesign.com) because several of my technology tutor clients needing access to notes about what I’d been teaching them. I figured the most effective way to give them easy access to those when they needed them was by posting them as tutorials in blog format. But I don’t intend to use the blog to promote the business, it’s a dump site for content so that I don’t have to keep saying the same thing over and over again.
  
  The reason I’m a dissenting voice, however, is because many of my Web design clients hire me to design their brick-and-mortar business’ online presence. They’re brick-and-mortar people and not really Web inclined, but they know all the best businesses are getting online these days and I definitely recommend a Web presence for all business owners. These business owners hear the hype about “needing” a blog but they aren’t motivated to write it themselves, they don’t have the foggiest idea about blogging, and aren’t interested in learning. In cases like this, they hire writers, but the money they spend on writers can be more productively used by having your writers write content for OTHER places around the Web (like article markets, guest posts on already established blogs, mailing lists, etc.). In those cases (which are not as rare as you might think) it is actually better for that business NOT to have a blog.

http://nathanhangen.com/blog Nathan Hangen

Well, my blog started out as just something fun to play with…but now it has taken on a whole new meaning. It is essential to my business…it is my main platform.

remarkablogger

That's how mine started out, too, back in 1999 and then up to 2005, when I switched from Blogger to self-hosted WordPress.

http://www.nextlevelblogger.com/about Christian Russell

I can't say that blogging has necessarily “saved” my business, but it is certainly in the process of transforming it and changing it for the better. There is no doubt about that. I couldn't imagine going forward without one; it was a clear choice. It has helped in that it provides a resource for clients, and it will eventually serve as a platform for making offers directly to my readers.

It's a fantastic point of leverage, which is ironic, because most people who don't blog view it as a huge time sink To me, it's about leveraging time. Why answer a simple question over and over and over again? just write a post (yes, it will take you 10 minutes or 30 minutes or whatever) and then you're done.

remarkablogger

Why answer a simple question over and over and over again? just write a post

Exactly. That's also the basis by which to create information products.

Here's something to think about. Let's tackle the question from the other side: what would happen to your sales and leads if you STOPPED blogging? The answer to that might be easier to imagine and more telling.
- http://genuinechris.com genuinechris
  
  I could be fine without it.
  - remarkablogger
    
    Knowing you, Chris I have no doubt about that. You'd still kill it.
    - http://genuinechris.com genuinechris
      
      Heh. No, my crowd is just in need of a blog…I'm not yet killing it…
- http://www.nextlevelblogger.com/about Christian Russell
  
  To me stopping blogging would be a step backwards for sure. It's created new income streams, and although I haven't grown my blog at all to the point that it's able to replace what I do in other marketing, it's growing steadily and I see that happening in the next year or so. I would also feel cut off a bit; I interact with a lot of people offsite via Twitter and such, but the blog is where I can work out my thoughts in more detail, get more in depth feedback, test ideas, etc. To me, it's the most comprehensive and cost effective product research tool I can imagine, as well as a platform for building a community and making offers.

http://maximumcustomerexperience.com/ Kelly

Michael,

I'd say it's getting really close to can't survive anymore without one. Or, maybe better said, shouldn't, if there's someone on staff who can write one.

Personally: the MCE blog has been interesting. Originally I started it for a couple of reasons: I wanted to engage my local community more, and I expected it to be another tool in the marketing mix for gaining more local business; and I recognized that no matter how many people hire me and how many businesses I help, there are far more I'll never hear from, who I'd love to help in some smaller way. There aren't enough hours in the day for me to work with everyone I'd like to, and blog-writing is a way to sort of spread the gospel, if you know what I mean.

So that's where my head was at. What's been interesting is that it has done exactly, precisely zero to aid my local marketing efforts. I still do local outreach in exactly the same way with the same results. It does help at the presentation stage, but not in actually drawing folks in with less effort. (We could argue I'm doing it wrong, but I've thrown a lot of spaghetti at this wall with nothing sticking. Seems my local area is… stick-resistant.)

However, it's done something wonderful and unexpected—I now have a rapidly growing international business. Local business has become less important to the bottom line as a result, and to have clients contacting me from all over the world has been just super. I'm really enjoying allowing the business to grow in a more location-independent way.

And gosh, that's just the purely mercenary side of it! My business would be far different without a blog, but another surprise, a few years into this adventure, is that *I'd* be far different without it.

I recommend it (preach it!) to any client who can keep up with quality writing on their subject. I see it as mission-critical.

Regards,

Kelly

remarkablogger

Kelly, I'm glad you brought up how personally transforming blogging can be, even while we are marketing. But I've come to view the path of entrepreneurship as also a path of personal development and growth–what some people would think of as “spiritual.” You're either going to become a “better you” in order to succeed or you're not.

Years ago I stopped caring about the local scene here because everybody was so behind the times that I just wasn't going to waste my time. My fees are not even remotely outrageous, but locals couldn't believe them (and like I said, that was years ago, now I've raised my fees several times).

Now, I'm beginning see it differently, because people are in pain and they feel trapped. They don't know that what they're really trapped within is their own beliefs. It's something I've been giving some thought to. But even then, it's not limited to local folks, because this pain is being felt all across the country.
- http://maximumcustomerexperience.com/ Kelly
  
  Michael,
  
  Knowing where you're from… yep. I know VT pretty well, and stick-resistant applies there, just about like here in DE. LOL. Doesn't stop my wanting to help out locals—as you say, I see folks trapped, and aaaaaargh, I've got solutions… but if blogging didn't expand the local possibilities in the way I expected it to, at least these days I seem to bang my head on the wall a little less at local frustrations!
  
  I also try to remind myself that no matter how many clients I talk to, from all over the place, *everyone* thinks their own local scene is problematic. The grass is always greener over the Interwebs.
  - remarkablogger
    
    Well, I did not want this to turn into a pitch or anything, but I think if
    you and I were to work together one-on-one I might be able to help you with
    that. I looked at your blog and noticed a few things I'd mention if you were
    my client. No pressure, just letting you know about the possibility.
    - http://maximumcustomerexperience.com/ Kelly
      
      Michael,
      
      I'm laughing—professionals can get busy and put off taking their own advice, and we've been darned busy this last year—but I appreciate the offer. You'd laugh too… there is SO much going on behind the scenes right now it's scary. The cobbler's getting much-delayed new shoes as we speak.
- http://www.nextlevelblogger.com/about Christian Russell
  
  This is such a cool topic. I've felt that for sure…the personal benefits to blogging. It really remains a personal journal, even though the focus can be highly focused on business. The process of regularly updating content and interacting with people simply forces you to be introspective. It really is a valuable pursuit, both professionally and personally.
  
  An effective business blog is thought-leadership, no? And at its core, leadership in all industries has a certain common ground…i understand what you're saying about entrepreneurship being a “path of personal development…” That's what blogging requires you to deal with on a regular basis. You can't be a thought leader and a slacker at the same time.
alistarbright

HI Kelly – I wonder if you'd elaborate on how you think your blogging adventure has changed you. I'm putting together a post on how blogging can positively affect small business people's mindset.
- http://maximumcustomerexperience.com/ Kelly
  
  Well, it's getting a bit off-topic, but for starters, the community of folks who give me the gift of their time every day just amaze me and fill me with pride. Many have become clients—but some have become very dear friends. The beautiful bonus of telling people what I think about growing their business 3-4 times a week for a couple of years.
  
  Is that “positively affecting my mindset”? Hm. Well, I guess, in a way, it is.

http://marketingartfully.com MarketingArtfully

I have to say about 3 years ago I was SO disdainful of blogs and could never have imagined they would become a big part of my business offerings and how I would best help my clients succeed. Sometimes I feel like a broken record talking to people about how different blogs are from websites and the power that they bring to people's small business marketing efforts.

Much of my business comes from in-person networking and speaking but my brand and my professionalism is validated by blogging. The ability for readers to “talk” with me in the comments makes it so much more vibrant than a static website.

remarkablogger

Tara, spoken like a true convert!
http://www.artbyraschella.com Raschella

How ARE blogs different from websites? I thought they were a part of it, but now I'm reading that people are making their blogs their websites, rather than putting blogs on their existing websites, if that makes any sense. So if I have a blog at WordPress, for instance, does that mean I just upload the content (my art portfolio, etc.) of my regular website to it? And is so, do I have to add wordpress to my URL? Ya know, I really thought I was up on all this stuff:-).
- remarkablogger
  
  A blog is a kind of website. Some folks have already invested in a “regular”
  site and just tack the blog onto it or create it separately even though this
  may not be the best long-term solution.

http://www.wedclix.com/ Mark

my blog is huge for my business, it helps clients get to know me on a personal level and since wedding photography is such a personal choice that really makes a difference when a client comes around to booking

remarkablogger

Mark, absolutely! Photography and blogs were made for each other! A great many professional photogs who are successful use blogs. Keep up the great work!

http://www.markeric.com/ mark eric

My blog has become my website. As a photographer, having a visual journal is priceless. It allows me to show images from every session that I shoot. Through it, I'm able to feature different venues and vendors that we work with, so when potential clients search for information on those venues and vendors- we have a chance at gaining exposure.

We gave up our primary flash based portfolio site several months ago, and now solely rely on our blog to book clients. Without a blog, our business would not be where it is today.

remarkablogger

Another photographer! Also named Mark! Two huge advantages of blogs over flash-based sites: <ul><li>You can edit everything in it yourself without paying a designer and waiting for weeks</li><li>Flash site SEO is still to this day pretty horrid and blogs are way better for SEO</li></ul>

http://www.blogcastfm.com/ Srinivas Rao

My blog wasn't a business when it started out. It was just a place for me to express myself. While I thought of ways to make money, I only really started moving in that direction about a month ago. But my blog has lead to alot of other things. My current job as a social media strategist is a byproduct of my blog. Thanks to my blog I landed that job, and even a freelance client which nets an additional 500 dollars a month. My blog is the reason I'm employed, so I think it was one of the smartest things I ever did. For any business I think you may not know where it will lead until you just start it.

remarkablogger

Srinivas, that is a great story! It really illustrates how being flexible in the route you take helps you get where you're going.

http://www.superparrots.com/pellet-food-harrisons-bird-foods-c-21_40.html Harrisons

Hard to say. Have had the blog for over a year but been pretty hit and miss at adding new entries. Guess I really have to get serious with it and start watching what it is actually doing. Thanks for reminding me on somthing that I should have already been doing.

remarkablogger

Sounds like your work is cut out for you. The faster you get moving, the faster you see results. Good luck!

http://twitter.com/Dinneen Dinneen Diette

For me, blogging has definitely helped me grow my business. Lots of people find me via my blog and have become customers and clients. I also find that blogging allows people to get to know me better (and we all know people buy from those they know, like & trust) so by the time they become a client they feel like they already know me. And it allows them to be more open with me, which then makes it easier for me to coach then (which actually helps THEM get better results).

In addition, I get a lot of insight and feedback from my blog. I can ask questions (just like you did here Michael!) and get input from my market. We often are so much “in” our business that asking questions or input on a blog can help us gain more perspective from the view of the audience. Which of course, we always have to be thinking about the prospective of the audience so we can better connect with them and give them what they want.

On the flip side, I must say I don't blog enough as I feel it can take up too much time. But you know what?….the blog posts that I've spent less time “thinking about” and just writing from the gut, have been some of my most popular posts.

Overall, blogging has helped my business. But I can see that for some it can get daunting. But I don't think you need to spend a lot of money on a blog when you're just starting out. Just START….then when you have more clients, customers and money coming in you can get the help of a professional to have a better designed one and for better optimization.

remarkablogger

Dinneen, great points! Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.

I'll write a post in the near future about how to blog more than you think
you can.

http://www.smallbusinesstransitions.com/ gregbd

I started writing online in 1998 and only began blogging in 2005. In my mind it's not about blogging it's about writing.

Writing online has brought me customers consistently for the last 12 years. I don't approach writing with any goal but to share what I'm learning, if people find value in it – they contact me and we figure things out together.

remarkablogger

That is a simple and wise approach! Thanks for sharing, Greg.

http://twitter.com/IAC_Heather Heather

I don't know that blog marketing saved my business, but it definitely helps and enhances it. I use my blog as a way to provide my expertise and insights that I have learned during my 10 years in running online businesses. I use it as a way to provide added value to my clients, readers, and visitors.

remarkablogger

Heather, exactly. Hard to do that without a blog, I think.

http://ariwriter.com Ari Herzog

Inclusive of blogging, the art of creating online content and marketing the content across multiple channels (both online and off) has been very beneficial in drumming up support for my business.

Have I received job offers as a result? No.
Job referrals, though? Yes.
Requests to lead workshops? Yes.

remarkablogger

Thanks for sharing your story, Ari. When you say job offers do you mean like freelance jobs or like employment?
- http://ariwriter.com Ari Herzog
  
  Either, both, neither. Not to be cryptic, but I make little distinction as a job is anything that provides income or other benefit. Social media usage, inclusive of blogging, has aided both full/part-time employment and gigs here or there.
  - remarkablogger
    
    That's because your site gives no indication at all that you are for hire.

tombabinszki

This is a good question.
When I started my blog, I knew where I wanted to take it, but never evaluated it in relation to my business.
If anything, maybe my blog contributed something to the business indirectly. I have evidence that my articles inspired people to contact me to use my company's consulting services.
However, I never published anything on the blog expecting to get any business out of it. Probably most of my visitors read it, because they are interested.
What my business does for a living is selling consulting services to help businesses make their technologies accessible to people with disabilities. However, I run this business because I believe there is a need for it. What my blog does is educating people about how technology helps disabled people when it is designed properly, or how technology can be an obstacle.
I think I have succeeded to accomplish what I originally wanted to do.

remarkablogger

Glad to hear you feel it's been a success, especially since you never evaluated the blog in relation to the business at first.

Archan Mehta

Michael:

I don't really know how to start a blog. Even if I could, I probably would not find the time to maintain a blog. Sometimes, life gets in the way, and I don't mean this as an excuse.

It is painful to have to sit at a desk and stare at a computer screen for long hours. A sporty,outdoorsy guy like me…the sedentary life doesn't suit my temperament. I would rather use that time to get some exercise and re-claim my lost innocence in nature.

I am sure I am the lone voice in the crowd, but so be it. The limited amount of free time I have, I am happy to read the blogs of other people and leave my comments, if possible.
Also, most times I feel I have nothing interesting to say, so I would rather read what others have to share. I find the blogs out there–some at least–quite fascinating.

I really don't have all the time in the world to spend on the computer. There are errands to run, household chores….there is too much on my plate already. Cheers to all of you.

remarkablogger

Are you running a business?

http://www.doggiestylish.com/store/blog/ Karen Friesecke

I have a retail site for dog collars and I always wanted to start a blog but I had no clue on what to blog about. I started my blog in Sept. 2009 and started by making DIY tutorials for dog stuff and it's been getting me more traffic and exposure. That combined with twitter actually led to a modestly (and I DO mean modest) paying gig. Now that I gotten more confident with the writing/blogging process I've started to write commentary posts about the goings on in the doggie world. The blog is growing & the traffic is growing, now I've got to make the sales grow.

Your post about having customers get free samples and write little reviews inspired me to do just that. Since it is so difficult to convince potential customers that your product is great when they can't actually touch it, the reviews will add a nice touch. Don't know why I didn't think about that sooner, DUH! I'll let you know how that works out.

remarkablogger

Thanks Karen. Hope it works well for you. Treat your blog like another form
of display space: feature new products, feature random products, write
comparison articles and reviews of different categories of products (nylon
vs leather vs chain, etc.). There's no end to it!

http://www.carp-fishing-holidays-france.com/ Jon Perkins

Our blog lets our customers know what has been going on and allows them to stay in touch with developments, we feel that this gives them a sense of belonging and encourages them to keep visiting the blog and the website which hopefully in turn encourages future business !

rexwood

Hi Michael,

The subject of 'social marketing' blogging, etc comes up all the time and I still struggle with the ability of the medium to generate business. I am in the financial services business. I specialise in reducing peoples debt and getting them to retirement wealthy, whatever that is for each of them, and it varies wildly.

Nonetheless, I am based in Sydney Australia and I could stand in the middle of any freeway/main street and tell people that I can help them get to retirement quicker, better etc, etc, and would get run over before people would stop for assistance. Yet I can say without qualification I have never sat in front of someone for whom I could not provide substantial benefit.

This is not an ad, simply to say that people don't go looking for me, I have to find them and sit them down for a conversation and then get them thinking and then…. I can get the to realise what I can do.
With that in mind what can I write that will attract people in my geographical area such that I can convert that into business?? as a complete novice in this area, i still struggle with the ROI that this offers. I had a marketing person tell me that I needed to spend 12 months building this.. in 12 months I'd be broke if this were to be the source of clients/revenue.

I want to find every single opportunity to develop business, but this is one area I really struggle with, well actually I also really struggle with Twitter and Facebook, and….

So can anyone tell me that they actually turn this medium into business revenue in their own geographical back yard [city/region/etc] and if so what is the recipe??

Apologies for being a naysayer, I am really wanting to commit to marketing efforts that will return results.

To date it's the phone. That's how i can get into conversation with people.

My other concern is the negative feedback that could result. Someone doesn't like their result/progress/outcome and the rest of the world hears, with no right of substantive reply?
Nestle Australia found that out to their detriment recently.

remarkablogger

Plenty of business still happens by phone and referrals. Most people would
get more business if they were better at these. But blogging helps, too, for
when people are searching online. Think about the folks who write articles
and books about finance: aren't they seen as experts and do they not have
plenty of work? A blog is another publishing channel, that's all.

A Blog helps with referrals, by the way, because it gives people a place to
go and check things out. It can actually be part of a sales process that
involves cold-calling or email marketing (links in the email).
- rexwood
  
  Thanks for the new perspective – things i hadn't considered. Do you believe it's feasible to build a following to a blog [assuming there is some content warranting reading it] as it seems a little like a needle in a haystack. Speaking to an empty hall. Do you have any idea of the average audience build profile? Or is it vastly different for all blogs? You have been doing this for 10 years, did you find a particular growth patter over that time?
  - remarkablogger
    
    It's always possible to build a following and market a business at the same
    time. Choose a particular group of people and give them information they
    want that's related to what you sell. People who have something to sell can
    be blind to what customers really want and customers don't always know what
    they want or want what's best for themselves. The better you are at this the
    faster your audience will grow. There are no averages for this, other than
    most blogs grow more slowly than their owners would like, while a few
    explode nearly overnight.
    - rexwood
      
      Thanks again for the sound advice. I think it's just having to jump in and get started and things will find their own equilibrium.
      Consider it started….

http://www.artbyraschella.com Raschella

I found this article in the archives, so I'm coming into it a little late, but I'm sitting on the fence about blogging. I'm and artist and I sell…artwork. I have yet to understand a. what exactly I would blog about that would be of real interest to people, and b. what would go in the blog that wouldn't go in my newsletter and vice versa. Also, for those selling a service, like Men With Pens, Copyblogger, ittybiz, and Remarkablogger, of course, it makes sense, but as someone selling a product, I'm not so sure. I can only write so much about technique, or what inspires me, or my new work (which isn't blogging, it's selling) without boring people to death. And I agree with Rebecca, the hourly cost of writing that could be better used to create more art is a big consideration. I'd love to get your comments and opinions – I've been in a bit of a quandary about this for some time.

remarkablogger

See my post on Artist Blogging
101<http://remarkablogger.com/2009/12/22/artist-blogging-101/>.
- http://www.artbyraschella.com Raschella
  
  OMG, thank you! This is the kind of info I've been looking for for MONTHS! Exactly what I need. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
  - remarkablogger
    
    You're welcome, glad it helped.

remarkablogger

You're welcome, glad it helped.